Does Google use RAM or Hard Drives?

[wumply]

Did I select the right forum?
Just read a BBC article--see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6376021.stm suggests it uses hard drives.

But I learned long ago from a knowledgeable source that Google used no hard drives but rather RAM (chips...transistors) to store all its web-crawling results--and that it was this that enabled it to find and present users with such speedy results.

Can someone clarify this for me?

[Reverend]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform

[cash_site]

I think they use just run of the mill computer hardware - from Rack-mounted servers with a few hard drives in each ;).... I think the key their speediness is the indexing and search algorithms, but also their internet and network speeds!! OC-48 (2488MBps!!!) and here i am happy with my 56k dialup!!

LOL